Curing the Fever
by reviewgirl911
Summary: AU half-way through Fever: Rowan, in the aftermath of his sister's disappearance, has been helping the naturalists stage protests and explosives. Immersed into this new life, he's unprepared for the unexpected: seeing his sister again. How will these siblings rebuild their relationship? Where has been Rhine been, and who is the boy she's with? Most importantly, why is she so sick?
1. Chapter 1

**Hey! Since I seem to be running low on fics to work on, so I decided to start another one. Like many Chemical Garden trilogy fans, I was left with more questions than answers after reading Sever. (And I despise that title and the cover. I mean, Sever? Really? I don't even understand why it's called that even after reading it.) I didn't like the absence of Maddie, the sparseness of Gabriel's appearances, and the entire characterization of Rowan. Of those three things, the last bothered me the most. I mean, Rhine works so hard to return to Rowan, and then he's a total jerk? Uh, no. Therefore, I toyed around with the idea of Rhine being reunited with Rowan in Fever and came up with these. This disregards about the last half of Fever. (Don't worry, you'll know where I am when you start reading.)**

People used to call New York the city that never slept. That was back before the world was destined to die, when there were glittering skyscrapers and people buzzing throughout the streets. My dad used to tell us of streets filled with taxis, the drivers shouting in foreign languages, and hot dogs and roasted peanuts being sold on every corner. Things are different now. There are no glittering skyscrapers, only dark drab buildings that have long lost their luster. Taxis, when they're even on the street, cost an arm and a leg to ride in. People try to avoid the streets if they can, particularly girls. There is too big of a risk of being Gathered and sold into prostitution or marriage.

Gathered. I can't even think the word without thinking of my sister, Rhine. A year ago, Rhine left the house (without my permission), probably to donate blood or something for research, and never came home. This was my worst nightmare, the very reason I had never wanted my sister to leave the house. Rhine had always been considered very beautiful by my friends and various strangers growing up, and that combined with the unusual eyes we shared would make her very valuable to Gatherers.

After our parents died, Rhine and I had a system. I took care of her, made sure there was food on the table, and set up an alarm system to scare away thieves and Gatherers. My sister had always been the emotional one. She wouldn't get out of bed for days after our parents died, and seeing a young thief's dead body on our front porch made her sob uncontrollably. "Your problem is that you're too emotional," I had told her more than once. "You care too much." She would always give me this look like, 'How can I not care?' I guess in this way my sister took care of me too.

After our parents' deaths, my heart turned to stone, my long-held dreams of saving the world evaporated. Now I didn't care if the world wasted away. In fact, sometimes I fantasied about helping along. I was dreaming of bombs and fire as my gentle sister tried to revive our mother's garden. If I was a hurricane, wild and angry, Rhine was the calm waves of the river she was named after. She was the only person who could calm me, gently coaxing my anger away like a breeze blowing away leaves.

And now it was just me. I had known it would be like this eventually. The now screwed-up genetics of my generation had ensured that my sister would die at twenty and myself five years later. I didn't like to think about this. Rhine was my twin, my other half. I was the dark and she the light. It would feel like half of me was missing. I hadn't planned on losing her like this, however, suddenly and four years too early.

I was worried the first night Rhine didn't come home. The second night, I was frantic. The third night, I was angry. I was angry at my sister for being stupid enough to leave the house, angry at myself for not protecting her better, and angry at the world for making her prey. Prey for scientists, so desperate for a cure they would experiment on anyone that they were willing to pay for things as simple as blood or as complicated as a living human. Prey for Gatherers, who could sell her into prostitution, to scientists, or to a man to become his trophy wife or baby machine.

I spent five months driving around to the seediest parts of the East in a stolen delivery truck, desperately searching for my sister. Deep down, I knew Rhine was too pretty to be one of these girls in a brothel. Someone must've bought her to be his wife, which meant she could be anything. Still, I kept looking, clinging to the hope that I would see a familiar pair of mismatched eyes.

It was on one of those trips that I met Sara. She was walking along the road in a nearly abandoned part of New York. All dark hair and dark eyes and smiles, she didn't look anything like Rhine, and yet something felt familiar. I offered to give her a ride, which she surprisingly accepted. She asked what I was doing so far from the city. I said that I was looking for my sister, who I suspected had been Gathered on the street. Her eyes turned dark, and then she started telling me how her little sister, only twelve years old, had been taken by Gatherers. Sara told me how she was part of the naturalists now. I listened as she described their plans, what they wanted to do to get attention. As we were pulling into the city, she asked me if I wanted to join.

My anger had grown tremendously without the presence of my gentle sister to pull me back. I wasn't content with the world drowning in its own rot. No, I wanted it to burn. I joined Sara and her friends. There weren't a lot of us, but there was enough to make some noise. My first act as part of this rebellion was burning my childhood home. I didn't want anyone else living there, but I couldn't stay there myself. Rhine was gone, I told myself as I lit the match and threw it in the house. She's not coming back. I made sure everything valuable was safe before I burned it, mostly the chest of our parents' things kept in their backyard. I took their notebooks and whatever things of value I could find and, on impulse, my mother's flower seeds.

I threw myself into this new life. My background as the son of scientists made the others suspicious of me at first, but some of that knowledge I had picked up as a kid came in handy. I was able to make explosives, better ones than they were able to buy. Because of this, I gained a certain position within the group. The leader was a guy named Joseph. Sara was his second-in-command. Since they both liked me, I wasn't well liked within the group.

Our base was a rickety little house near what used to be the harbor. Most of the people came and went. The permanent residents included me, Sara, a kid in charge of supplies named Mac, and Joseph's cousin, a boy about six or seven years old who was mute and deformed. The boy liked staying in the house, and no one ever bothered him. The demonstrations we orchestrated were pretty low-scale: explosives wrapped around trees during speeches, small fires, etc. We were part of a larger operation in New York. Our assignment was to raise tensions but stay unnoticed.

This was my life now. Well, at least it was until a particular demonstration where I saw my sister...


	2. Chapter 2

There was nothing special about the demonstration that day. I set up with some of the guys as usual, wrapping the explosives in the branches of the trees and hiding out with the detonator. Sara and Joseph were usually the ones who did the talking. They had invited me to say something, to talk about my sister, but I had said no. I had been tempted to, but then I thought about Rhine, and I knew she wouldn't want to be part of a cause that wished for the world to burn.

I was leaning against one of the few trees I hadn't rigged with the detonator, waiting for Sara's signal. As I waited, I saw a little girl running around. She didn't seem to be running from someone but running in the way kids do when they are exploring a new place. I remembered running around like that with Rhine in our childhood, pretending to have glorious adventures like the people of the old world once did.

As the girl got closer, I saw her disfiguration. Disfigured children had become common when first generation tried having children. These children were often missing limbs, fingers, or other important body parts. I remember my parents talking about these children. People would drop deformed babies at the doorstep of their lab every night. This little girl, however, didn't seem to have any body part missing. Her face looked a little odd and the fingers on her one hand a little demented, but otherwise she seemed perfectly fine. She approached me carefully, her small head titled in curiosity.

"Maddie!" My heart nearly stopped. The little girl seemed to recognize the voice, turning away from me but not answering. I wondered if she could talk. Maybe she could tell me if I was just hearing things, or if that had been my sister's voice.

Luckily, I did not have to attempt to ask the little girl, Maddie, as the owner of the voice came forward. This time I was sure I was seeing things. My sister was standing right in front of me. Rhine was standing right in front of me. I didn't know what to say.

I took a good look at her. She was thin, extraordinarily so, and if I could guess I would say she had been sick lately judging by the pallid color of her skin. Her clothes were dirty and ill-fitting. Still, her hair was still golden blonde and her eyes captivating, and she looked just as lovely as she always had. There was something else there now, a tiredness or restlessness, that I couldn't pin down. I glanced down at her hand and realized why. There was a wedding ring on her finger.

Rhine didn't seem to notice me. Her focus was on Maddie. She held out a hand, which Maddie slowly took. She smiled faintly, as if the very act was difficult for her. She looked up, ready to apologize for Maddie's intrusion, and froze. Her eyes took me in, little by little, as if hesitant to believe I was real. She blinked a couple times. "Rowan?" she whispered.

I nodded, standing up. I was sure I had been signaled by now, but I really didn't give a damn. I had found my sister.

She crashed into me, her arms clinging tightly around my chest. I just held her, resting my forehead on her bony shoulder. She was shaking, and I knew she was crying, but there was no sound. I did not cry, but I felt like it. In that moment, I believed in the God and angels our dad used to tell us stories about. In that moment, I believed what I hadn't in a long time: There was good left in the world.

Finally, Rhine pulled away, wiping her tears on the back of her hand. Maddie was still standing there, staring at Rhine and me in fascination. Rhine smiled at her. "Where's Gabriel?" Maddie didn't answer, but her head moved in a certain direction. Rhine looked around trying to locate someone.

"Whose Gabriel?" I asked, narrowing my eyes. Rhine ignored me, her odd colored eyes scanning the crowd. Finally she smiled and cupped her hands over her mouth, shouting, "Gabriel!"

I watched as a dark-haired, tan guy came over. He had skin that was naturally tan in a way that simply didn't exist with people in New York. He didn't notice me, only raising his eyebrows at my sister. "What, did another hurricane come and whisk you away?"

I frowned at this remark, wondering when my sister had ever been anywhere near a hurricane, but Rhine just laughed, her eyes lighting up. She placed a hand on his arm. "Gabriel, this is my brother Rowan." She looked at me. "Rowan, this is Gabriel."

For a moment, we studied each other. I didn't know him, and he didn't know me, and I didn't know if we could get along. I did know one thing. He loved my sister. I could see it in the way he looked at her. It was the way our father had always looked at our mother. So I did the only thing I could do. I held out my hand and said hello. Grateful for the gesture, Gabriel reciprocated.

I could tell my sister had a million questions for me. She probably wanted to know why I had burned down our home, where I had been, and why I was at such a demonstration. I knew I had questions. Where had she been taken? What happened to her there? How had she gotten away from her husband? What was Gabriel to her? Whose child was Maddie. All these questions were swirling around in my head, and so I said, "I'm staying with some friends of mine down by the harbor." I didn't say, "You can stay too", because I knew Rhine didn't need me too. She only nodded and proceeded to follow me. Gabriel picked up Maddie, balancing her on his hip, and took Rhine's hand, tightly entwining their fingers together as if he thought someone would come and take her away. This gesture interested me, but I decided it could wait until we got home.

Home. My sister was finally home...


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey! What's up! I know this is a very small fandom, but reviews are always appreciated. So, onto the chapter. Rowan takes Rhine, Gabriel, and Maddie back to the safehouse and learns a little more on how his sister got home. Enjoy! Disclaimer: I do not own The Chemical Garden series. I wish I was Lauren DeStefano.**

It wasn't a long walk back to our safe house. I tried not to walk too fast, noticing the sheer exhaustion that radiated off of both my sister and Gabriel. Maddie rode on Gabriel's back, clinging tightly to his neck. I knocked on the door, waiting for someone to answer. Chris opened the door, his crossed eyes staring at me.

"Hey Joe," I said. "Anyone home?" Chris couldn't really talk, but he could basically communicate. He shook his head and moved so we could come in. Chris, instead of disappearing as usual, lingered. His eyes were firmly set on Maddie, who Gabriel was putting down. He took a step towards Maddie and extended his hand. Maddie watched him carefully for a moment before taking the hand. The two children ran off, probably to Chris's part of the house.

I watched this in shock, Gabriel in awe, but Rhine did not seem surprised. In fact, she was smiling. It was a smile that had not seen the light of day in a while. It looked somewhat out of place on her gaunt, pale face, but it still made both Gabriel and me grin.

I cleared my throat. "There's a bathroom upstairs to the right. I'll try to find you guys some clean clothes."

Rhine didn't say anything, only nodding and heading upstairs. Gabriel and I sat on the ratty couch, neither of us saying a word. Finally, I spoke up. "Do you want something to drink?" I wasn't sure what to say to this stranger my sister had brought home.

"Sure," he replied. I got up and headed into the kitchen, grabbing a glass and filling it with water. I went back into the other room and handed it to Gabriel.

"Thank you," he said. Gabriel gulped at it greedily. "I've missed drinking fresh water."

I laughed. "Keep missing it. Water in New York is half water, half chemicals."

He shrugged. "Better than the swill we've been drinking. This at least looks like water."

It was quiet for a moment. I could hear the shower running and Maddie and Joseph playing in another room. Neither of them were actually talking, but they were making small noises. "Where did you two come from?"

"Florida," Gabriel answered.

"Florida?" I repeated. I had always loved geography. Our father had had a huge map of how the United States used to look, all evenly divided up. I knew where Florida was, all the way on the other side of the country, deep into the South. "How did Rhine get all the way down there?"

Gabriel's calm look faded at the question. "Whoever Vaughn bought her from must've transported her there."

"Vaughn?" I asked. "Is that her husband?"

Gabriel shook his head. "No, Vaughn is her father-in-law. Linden's not the type of man who would buy a wife. He was madly in love with his first when Rhine arrived." He paused. "Rose took a liking to Rhine. None of us could figure out why. They could have been sisters they looked so alike. Vaughn probably bought her for that reason."

I didn't miss the hint. "She died?"

Gabriel nodded, taking another sip of his water. "She was twenty." I hate that this is our world, that you ask if someone dies and people say the person's age like that is a reasonable reason they should be dead before they even can get a chance to live. "Rhine became the first wife after that."

I was not surprised by this fact. My sister had always been considered very pretty, and she could be charming when she wanted to be. What I couldn't understand was why that position would appeal to her.

I didn't have to ask why. "The first wife gets to leave the house," Gabriel explained. "And she gets a key to the elevator."

I raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure Rhine took advantage of that."

Gabriel laughed, but it was not entirely happy. "She tried to escape during a hurricane."

I'm sure my jaw was on the floor. "A hurricane?" I repeated. "Why?"

He shrugged. I was about to ask another question when a familiar voice asked, "What about a hurricane?" Rhine stepped down the stars. Her wet hair was hanging down her back in a braid, and she had some pajamas I found of Sara's on. Her face was still too gaunt and pale, but at least she looked clean.

Gabriel smiled at her. "We're just talking about crazy people who run into hurricanes."

There was a smile at the corner of her lips. "Really? People do that?" Rhine looked Gabriel over. "Go take a shower," she commanded. Gabriel nods and hands upstairs. Rhine took his seat on the couch and leaned back.

I watched her carefully. She looked like she had been sick. Her eyes were closed, and I could practically see the veins in her eyelids. I wondered what her husband had been like, what the other wives had been like. I wondered why she had run away with Gabriel.

I was pushed out of my wonderings by the sound of footsteps. I tensed up, worried that the others were back from the rally. I wasn't looking forward to explaining why I had never activated the explosives. Fortunately, it was only Maddie. She approached the couch and stared at me. I didn't say anything, only moving over on the couch. Maddie jumped up and sat next to Rhine.

Rhine, knowing someone had jumped onto the couch, opened her eyes. she smile faintly at Maddie. "Are you hungry?" she asked. Maddie nodded faintly.

"There's some stuff in the pantry," I offered. "It's right by the sink. She should be able to reach it."

Rhine nodded, giving her consent to Maddie. We watched her scurry away and grab Chris's hand.

"Cute kid," I commented offhandedly. "Where'd you find her?" I was digging for information, and both of us knew it. I wasn't used to digging for the truth from my sister. I was used to being so finely attuned to her that I just knew what was wrong. I was used to her telling me on the rare occasion I couldn't figure it out.

"She lived with her mom in a red district Gabriel and I passed through," she answered. "When we escaped, she made us promise to take Maddie with us. The madam there wanted to kill her." I waited for more details, but they didn't come. "The less you know, the better," was all my sister had in way of explanation.

I tried to convince her otherwise. "It's just me, Rhine. There's no one else listening."

The look my sister fixed me with was so skeptical I felt nervous. "There is always someone listening," she said, getting up to go see if Maddie had found a snack in the kitchen.

It was clear to me now. Rhine was not the same girl who I had last seen, and I needed to learn more about what had happened to her in Florida and how exactly she had managed to come home.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey! Been a while, hasn't it! Sorry! I was suffering from the lack of a computer, but now I have a loaner so I'm good. So now Rowan has his sister back, safe and sound, but how will this affect his place in the naturalist movement? Will Rhine be considered a risk or an asset? This chapter is dedicated to Divergentlover, who wanted me to update so much she wrote the word 36 times in her review. Enjoy! Disclaimer: I do not own the Chemical Garden triology. I would like to own Lauren DeStefano's next book, however.**

Time went by. Sara and Joseph came back from the demonstration, furiously yelling about how I had messed up the whole plan by not setting off the explosives. All the noise got the attention of my sister, who carefully made her way down the stairs. Her eyes flinted between the two of them, her lips pursed worriedly.

Sara noticed Rhine first and froze. Joseph didn't register Sara's shock and kept on yelling until she elbowed him. He looked up at the staircase. Joseph stared at my sister and then glanced at me. No one said a word. The only sound in the house was Maddie and Chris's strange laughter.

After a few minutes of staring and silence, Rhine spoke up. "Hi, my name is Rhine."

Sara snapped out of her daze and smiled. "I'm Sara." She gestured to Joseph, who was still staring at Rhine. "The staring idiot is Joseph."

Joseph too snapped out of his daze and give Rhine a suspicious look. I recognized it from when I first came into the group. Joseph suspects everyone of something until they give a reason not to.

"Aren't you supposed to be dead or something?" he asked coldly. I winced internally at the question. Joseph, like Sara, actually knew the story of what had happened to my sister. He had suggested that, because her beauty, she was probably sold as a wife to a rich husband, most likely out of the state since there wasn't much wealth in New York anymore, instead of being a prostitute in one of the local red districts. This was merely a test. I was sure I looked furious, but Rhine showed no emotion at all.

"Gathered, not dead," she corrected casually. "Though I did almost get killed in a hurricane if that helps."

Sara and I both had to hold back laughter at Joseph's stunned expression. He looked over her appraisingly before giving a short nod and going off to attend to business. That was basically his stamp of approval. Sara followed after forcing Rhine to promise to make herself at home and to help herself to anything in the pantry. It was clear she and I were thinking the same thing: my sister was much too thin.

Once they were gone, I laughed. Rhine gave me a questioning look. "The commanding officers approve of you," I teased. She smiled tentatively.

It was true. Dinner that night went well. It was only Sara, Joseph, Rhine, Gabriel, Chris, Maddie, and I since the others had gone home after the demonstration. Sara was the only girl in the naturalist group, and so she immediately bonded with Rhine, who accepted the offer of friendship more easily than I had seen her do in the past. From this, I deduced that she'd definitely had at least one sister wife, if not more, despite the fact Gabriel claimed her husband hadn't been the type to buy a wife. I vaguely remembered him mentioning the husband's father, Vaughn. Maybe he was the one pulling the strings. I would ask Rhine if I could get her to talk.

Gabriel and Maddie were introduced. Gabriel was quiet for the most part, listening intently and answering questions when asked. He and Rhine were sitting next to each other, and much to my annoyance there seemed to be constant contact between them: Rhine's hand resting on his leg or her head on his shoulder, Gabriel kissing her hair. I got the same feeling I'd had earlier, that he was afraid someone was going to snatch her. Still, couldn't they tone it down at dinner? I liked Gabriel (from what I'd seen of him). He seemed like he had been both good to and for my sister. Still, the overprotective brother in me didn't like it one bit. And, if I was honest, I was afraid of losing her again.

Maddie and Chris sat at their own little table nearby, eating and communicating in their own way. Maddie ate a little more ravenously than Chris, and it was clear there had been a lack of steady meals for a while. Still, she seemed happy enough, and I could see that Rhine was watching her from the corner of her eye.

Joseph invited Rhine and Gabriel to stay at the house for however long they needed. Everyone else was coming over for a meeting that night, and surprisingly Rhine and Gabriel received an offer to sit in. Gabriel declined politely, but there was an angry glint in Rhine's eyes as she said no. She glanced at me before going upstairs, and for a second I saw a flash of something go through her eyes: disappointment.

* * *

I got my ass handed to me at the meeting. Everyone seemed to want to yell at me, and most did. Finally, Sara got sick of it and whistled. That got everyone's attention. Joseph did most of the explaining of how I had found my sister and where she'd been. I leaned back, carefully watching the reactions of those around me. Some seemed shock, other suspicious, and a few disinterested.

"Is it safe to have her stay here?" one of the guys whose name I could never remember asked. "What if her husband comes and tracks her down? It's risky for us."

I just glared at him. "She goes, I go," I threatened. A couple people looked worried at that. As unpopular as I was, I was valuable to the movement. Without me, they'd have to go back to spending an arm and a leg on explosives or attempt to make extremely low-grade ones.

Joseph cleared his throat, probably so this guy and I would avoid a fight. "No one is going anywhere," he stressed. "Tomorrow, we'll check her for any tracks and get her and Gabriel fake identities." No one argued with him. It usually wasn't a good idea.

Despite many initial worries, Rhine was soon more popular with many of the guys than I was. Her swinging blonde hair became a fondly familiar sight for many, and early attendance for meetings was not uncommon. None ever made a move, though, since Gabriel usually wasn't looming too far away. He was also quickly accepted into the fold, proving to be extremely helpful in the kitchen (an extreme weakness of the house).

Maddie was treated much like Christ, as if she were not there, by everyone but Joseph, Sara, Gabriel, Rhine, and myself. Rhine, however, was the best with them. Gabriel would be working in the kitchen, making something delicious smelling, and Maggie and Chris would be sitting at the table, listening to Rhine tell a wonderful story. It was hard not to listen to Rhine when she was telling a story. Even I would stop and listen, still reveling in the calming sound of my sister's voice.

Once, Mac ignorantly asked her, "Why do you bother? They don't understand you. They never even talk."

I had been standing in the doorway and looked over at Gabriel, who was wincing. We both knew that would set her off.

She fixed him with an icy glare. "They don't have to talk to understand," she responded coolly. "Sometimes, I think they understand even more than we do."

Mac raised an eyebrow. "How's that?"

Rhine smile. "They know what's important." It was in this statement that I understood the earlier disapproval in my sister's eyes. She thought we were wasting our time, wasting our limited lives, with trying to burn an already dying world. And, for the first time, I was starting to agree with her.


End file.
